Making Sweet Memories

When I was a kid, my family used to pick strawberries every June. We crouched amid the rows of green leaves seeking out the partially obscured plump, red bounty.  Once our baskets were full, we would head home where my mom set to work baking a cake from scratch. After dinner, she served us slabs of still-warm cake smothered with sweet berries and slightly sweetened whipping cream. We were always allowed seconds on strawberry shortcake night. For me, it’s a food memory that signals the start of summer; the heralding of so many varieties of tender, sweet local fruit yet to come.

Shockingly, I have never taken my own kids strawberry picking. I blame the fact that we live so close to an awesome farmer’s market where we can conveniently pick up flats of just-picked berries along with other seasonal produce. However, I have started my own tradition: making jam.

Every June, although I still make strawberry shortcake, I also make strawberry jam. And my kids help. Helping involves a range of activities, depending on the helper’s age. Several years ago, my two older kids mostly just ate the berries while they chatted with me at the island in our kitchen. Last year, the berries were ready earlier in June so my two-year-old and I made the jam while the big kids were at school. Her help was limited to some stirring and much licking of the spoon, which was cool with both of us. This year, the berries are later, still present in almost every stall at the market. I picked up two flats on Thursday, discounted and branded “jam berries” because of their advanced state of ripeness. So on Friday, the first day of summer vacation, my older daughter and I set to work making jam.

My middle child is almost eight, which means she can help quite a bit. So I washed and hulled berries and she crushed them in a bowl. I sterilized jars and lids, while she measured out the sugar. We took turns stirring the bubbling pot of heavenly smelling liquid and then she dried the lids while I filled the hot jars. Two hours later, we had sixteen jars of strawberry jam lined up on the counter. 

This weekend, as I watched my family devour endless pieces of warm toast smeared with heaping globs of our homemade jam, I thought about the future and whether this will become a significant food memory for my children. Maybe they will carry on the tradition and make jam with their kids. Then again, maybe they won’t, choosing to forge ahead and create their own tradition with strawberries. Either way, I hope that whenever they taste the first strawberry jam of summer, they think back to warm afternoons in our kitchen, the sun streaming through the windows, the heady scent of fresh Ontario strawberries in the air.

*********************************

Do you have any enduring food traditions from your childhood? Have you carried them through to your own family?

This is an original Canada Moms Blog post.